


Yuri and Flynn Go to Hell

by Felinis



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Death, F/M, Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 13:02:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17829089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felinis/pseuds/Felinis
Summary: On the night that Flynn proposes to Estelle an arrow takes her life. On the day of her funeral her ghost beckons them to the land of the deatd. Now, Flynn is gonna fight the ghosties, the concept of death, and crippling fear of his own mortality with Yuri at his side.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this prompt is obviously taken from something Nightfoot posted on tumblr and I am only posting this part because I use fanfiction as a way to run from my real world responsibilities and loneliness and if post this part I can temporarily stop myself from not doing what I should have been doing all weekend... Also writing this is just an excuse for me to write gore and horror and describe one of my many visions of the underworld. Also because this is me assume it is somehow a comedy

Tragedy is hard to recall. It is clear and vivid and burns in tears that you know and understand but it is distorted and twisted in grief moments after it happens. It is screaming and feeling lost as the tears roll down your cheeks and your nose clogging as snot drips down. It is drowning on dry land while living in a moment. Actions you know and will rationalize later like screaming and anger. Hurting people, being irrational as people try to help but you can’t understand because you are trying to be calm and rational. You are trying to understand!

_But you can’t_

You want to understand! Why did it happen? Why are you looking at this? Why? WHY? WHY?

And at some point, you deflate- no you pop like a balloon. It all falls out of you and you will wonder if this is a dream. It never is. Whenever you think this isn’t reality in these moments it never is and you always know it no matter how much you are crying to wake up. You are trapped in something worse than a dream because it is fucking reality and you will have to live with it.

That’s how it felt to just remember yesterday.

* * *

 

Flynn had just proposed to her. It was supposed to just be their evening of grandeur in the garden having wine and cheese as they laughed on a picnic blanket underneath Estelle’s favorite tree. It was supposed to be simple… pure, when he would pull the ring out and gently get on one knee. He planned to hold her as they looked at the stars and just knowing them they would jokingly plan out their wedding with all the intentions of leaving them as jokes but would probably end up doing it in practice.

It was supposed to be that. And that is the sentence that always speaks of tragedy. Nothing supposes into good and comforting events…

It had to have been a misfire. A shot just a bit too soon because it was meant for him. But, sometimes an assassin’s hand cramps at the last second and fires his arrow off a second too soon and strikes the beloved princess in the neck instead of the commandant. Sometimes a person is left with no idea what to do because they can’t fix this so they chase the assassin instead and hope the guards will hurry. And there are tears and it’s hell because this was supposed to be a pure evening!

Her blood is on his hands and his own troops have to stop him because he inches from beating this man to death. Flynn as never snapped at death around him but this is different. This isn’t a moment he was preemptively prepared for. Even sobbing as a kid at his mother’s death he never once felt this unhinged because it had been so drawn out… but he did for this…

He watched them take her body away as he sat on the grass. “Pull it together! Pull it to-fucking-gether!”

It was fine… No, that is a lie! He knows it’s a lie! But he needs to say it because otherwise, he’s not sure how to function. “Estellise.” He liked calling her that instead of Estelle despite her protest because he liked how soft it felt on his tongue.

It felt like a song.

She was buried over the course of the next week with a grand funeral befitting her status with the whole of nobility mourning or at least putting on the guise just for her and the masses of the public and lower quarter staring at the casket with wet eyes. Estelle was dead. It didn’t feel real. When Yuri pulled him into a hug to ask if he was okay it didn’t feel real. It felt too real. He kept wondering when he was going to wake up but he never did. Her body never just moved again. She was dead.

Cold and dead, “I’m fine.”

He’s glad that nobody pressed him on those words. He knows that Yuri knows he’s a wreck and Flynn knows that Yuri is probably in a state of numbness before the grief finally settles and they can both cry about on their own terms.

She’s dead. Estelle is dead.

He keeps saying it but it doesn’t make it seem right. Death comes for everyone but it’s not supposed to come until he is old and senile and the two of them can safely say they’ve lived a life. Rita places a hand on his arm and mutters “I know,” to him as her comfort and it does help. It helps to think he’s not alone in his thinking.

It’s as the coffin is being lowered into the ground that Flynn sees a stranger watching in a hidden view. He’s not sure why he fixates on them but he thinks it’s because they don’t… he can’t describe them. Flynn calls it a person but it’s not. A person has characteristics this is like staring at a smudge in reality. The smudge is indescribable but the person… the person next to them he’d know anywhere.

Blurry, but it’s unmistakable. This has to be a dream.

_You follow_

His head rattles as the thought echoes and seems to spear through his eyes. A sound from both within and beyond him that he can’t explain.

_Follow_

He sees the glint of something fall as the coffin finally descends into to the ground while the smudge blinks out of existence. He fishes it from the bush once the crowd vanishes and recognizes it at her beloved memento from her mother. “But… but Estelle was supposed to…?”

He jumps a little at the hand on his shoulder but stops at the voice, “Hey, you okay?”

Flynn gives Yuri a hesitant nod and rubs his fingers softly on the memento narrowing his eyes at the ground below. It looks like there are footprints on the ground leading further in. “Yuri… you believe in ghosts?”

“Um, considering everything I’ve seen I can believe it,” Yuri says and Flynn follows forward along the path of footsteps. “Hey, where are you going?”

_Follow_

Flynn ignores him and walks through the cemetery path around the tombstones. “Hey, um, Flynn what the hell are you doing?” He keeps walking, “Okay really, what the fuck are you doing?”

He stops when the path ends at a hedge. This is the part that will tell him it’s time to wake up and go back to reality. Something to surreal will happen and he’ll wake up with Estelle by his side and this past week will have been a dream. Or maybe the opposite and Yuri will rightfully smack him repeatedly in the face to assure him he’s mad for following a voice in his head. Maybe it’s just denial.

_Follow_

Or maybe this is what happens when you don’t sleep more than three hours in the span of a week. He’s not sure. But, he does know that when Yuri leans in next to him muttering, “What the fuck?” there is a sense of assurance because when he pulls back the foliage there’s a door.

Or, no… that’s a cave with a boulder in front of it.

“So, care to explain this? Like is this some entrance to a secret royal tomb where you they like talk dead or something? Or is this like a cask of amontillado kind of situation because either one has me worried.”

Flynn shakes his head, “What?”

“I’m just trying to understand this and you are giving me nothing,” Yuri says brushing back more of the leaves and branches. There’s writing on it and it’s Flynn’s turn to push him out of the way and inspect it. It’s a very old script, one he’s only seen in textbooks that predates modern Ilyccian and he’s heard Rita mention in passing.

It’s old but thankfully the script is similar enough that it’s easy enough for one to get a sense of what is written. “Insert the key and descend but know only the living may return. Sounds like a tomb.”

“Hey, remember that labyrinth we went to were there creepy illusions of people that we had to fight and stuff?”

Flynn blinks because he does remember that and it was kind of awful. That is an understatement but he tries not to look at things that way. “Yeah… I try not to remember the image of you _stabbing me_ through the fucking gut and dissolving into aer or whatever that was.”

Yuri chuckles awkwardly before sucking in a breath, “Hey, I’m not saying that wasn’t a bad day for everyone.”

A gross understatement!

“Um, but I was just thinking this whole thing sorta reminded of it… Maybe it’s one of those things or something.”

Flynn rubbed the back of his neck sighing. “Whatever, let’s just head back.”

“What? You’re just gonna walk up to a creepy door in a graveyard and walk away just like that?” Yuri says and Flynn just shrugs.

“Um, yeah, common sense says this is an all likelihood a terrible idea. When have mysterious doors ever lead to anything good?” Besides he’s just being crazy… There’s no way… He fiddles with the memento and notes the indent in the door. “We should hurry to the repass. Everyone’s probably wondering where we are.”

“I was hoping I could talk you out of that.”

“I don’t really get to just go missing from this kind of thing.” Flynn’s never been a fan of funerals in any setting and he agrees with Yuri’s underlying words. He’d love to just disappear and let himself be numb alone here or anywhere else. Love to but can’t.

_Follow_

Yuri nods and silence falls as they stand there caught in their own thoughts. “We could just take a quick look… You could make up some kind of emergency or whatever and they probably wouldn’t give a shit.”

“Yuri…”

“I don’t want to go there. Okay.”

Flynn ignores the small shake in the tip of Yuri’s fingers and gives a smile in an attempt of- who knows, assurance? Comfort? Something? He’s got no idea but he’s gotta do something because he gets it. Flynn really gets it. “Fine. As the Commandant I guess I can’t let a mysterious door go.”

It’s easy enough to figure out that Estelle’s memento is the key and the rock turns over giving way to a dark abyss and a flight of stairs. Flynn takes the first step and descends into the pitch.

_Follow_

* * *

 

It feels like they’re walking for eternity but Flynn knows it’s only been a few minutes before he decides once more this is ludicrous and they at least need a light down here before realizing something. “Hey, Yuri?”

“Yeah,” Yuri says turning back to him.

“Where’s the door?” Flynn says because he knows they are not that far from the entrance and they should still see it and as they run up it becomes clear. The door is gone. “That makes no sense!”

“Oh, I am definitely getting cursed labyrinth vibes,” Yuri says and Flynn wants to smack him a hint for that because that is not helping. Then, Yuri points out what should have been obvious had Flynn been paying attention. “Hey, Flynn, how the hell are we still seeing anything?”

Flynn blinked and looked at his hand for a moment thinking about this because Yuri was right. There was no source of light anywhere but he could see just enough to make Yuri out along with himself. “Let’s not think about it… Moving forward looks like about it as far as options.”

As they head further and further down into the black Yuri, of course, points out, “You notice that there aren’t any stairs?”

And Flynn does note that no matter where he places his feet there is a solid purchase for him to step on and yeah, that is insanely weird. “I’ve been choosing to ignore everything that’s going on for sanity’s sake.”

Like the fact that the air is humid and that there’s a scent rising up that is familiar and wrong. It’s sweet. It’s sweet and acidic… it’s something he knows. There’s warmth to its odor an underlying texture that cloys with the humidity. The whole way down it bothers him till finally, images start to arise when the smell sours. It’s the smell of decay. Of fresh decay.

The part where a corpse can smell nice because the sugars are dissolving first before giving way to the rest of the rot.

Flynn does point this out but neither of them comments on it. The air just keeps getting hotter and hotter and Flynn almost wishes he’d just been able to wear a suit to the funeral because he’s starting to sweat in his armor. Fuck formalities and their inconveniences!

God, it’s hot down here and it’s just smelling more and more like rot. It’s gone from almost pleasant to a reeking stench that’s cloying in his mouth.

Like he can taste death in this muggy ever-growing blackness.

Yuri takes his hand at some point after yelling that he can’t see anything and neither can Flynn. The strange sense of illumination has vanished leaving them in nothing. They’re walking straight in silence with their hands held tight because it’s become more than obvious at this point that nothing is making sense.

Their feet make no sounds, the air is silent, and the smell wafts in their faces like a cloud of gnats.    

Flynn’s not really sure who started talking first but he’s pretty sure it’s Yuri and he’s not complaining even if most of it is just mild ramblings about essentially nothing. Mostly because he’s doing about the same.

They’re just walking through nothing!

It gets warmer and warmer till the smell peaks at its rottenness and then fades. The heat, the smell, everything but Flynn and Yuri gets swallowed by the dark. It goes from warm to cold. A deep unsettling kind that burrows into the bones and leaves a person shivering no matter the actual temperature.

Deeper and deeper. Colder and Colder.

Till something. Not light but something greets them finally at the bottom.

It is confusing, to say the least, and he is saying the least, that what they finally walk into looks like a gray smudge in space.

“Do you understand this?” Flynn says putting his hands up what feels like a wall but visually is indistinguishable from everything else.

Yuri let’s out a forced laugh. “Oh, I stopped understanding this awhile back.”

Flynn knocked his hand noting the hollow sound. “Huh, hey, I think there’s a—”

_Pain!_

A scream tearing through his throat as his eyes burned and sizzled inside his skull. A dripping sensation he could just barely perceive on cheeks as Flynn fell on the floor rolling in agony. What the hell! What the goddamn hell? Everything was burning and his throat was closing while his blood boiled inside of him and the longer it went on the more he felt like he was melting. Actually, melting with his muscles and skin sliding off his bones and those cracking tearing themselves apart. Splintering and tearing till he couldn’t feel anything in the vast overload of sensation going on with his body.

PAIN

PAIN

PAIN!

PAIN!

PAIN!

And suddenly it was gone.

One moment agony and suddenly nothing. He took in a sharp breath and was actually surprised that he was able to see. He could see and they were at a dock… Or at least it looked like one, he heaved and struggled not to upchuck from the whiplash of pain. Nothing, he feels nothing. Fuck.

He vomits.

Not a trace of any of _that_. Any of whatever the fuck that was. “Yuri?” He gasps out and realizes that his favorite idiot is nowhere to be found. “Oh, fuck no.” Flynn scrambles upright and looks around this rickety dock full of fog but it’s just him. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

It’s then he hears someone also vomit behind him and he lets a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, thank fuck.”

Yuri wipes the bile and barf off his chin and looks him wide-eyed and Flynn gets it. He really gets it. There’re no words for whatever the fuck that was. “You okay?”

Yuri takes his offered hand hoisting himself back up. “Are you?” Flynn clicks his tongue and grits his teeth, “Great, so it wasn’t just me. Cool.”

Once again, they are back to being utterly confused by their surroundings. “Okay, so we are at a creepy dock surrounded by fog after descending down what felt like the concept of the void itself and experiencing… _that_ \- I think we’re in hell.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. People just don’t walk into hell.” Flynn says trying to get a peek at the water below.

“Ah, but we are not most people,” Yuri says leaning over the edge before quickly pulling back. “We have all the luck and none of the luck. And I’m pretty sure this river is acid and not the good kind.”

…“We could be on acid.” Flynn mutters and tries to remember the last time when Yuri and he were dumb teenagers and snuck into the even more decrepit part of the slums because it felt like a good way to stick it to the man. If he’s honest, it was pretty boring at the end of the day. Yeah, the trip itself wasn’t bad and Flynn remembers at one point he just started talking to a wall but it really wasn’t worth it. And this is nothing like being on acid.

_Follow_

He turns and looks to see a boat at the end of the dock. A rickety old rowboat with a lantern at the end shining as the only light in the fog. A figure much like the one he saw from before a smudge in space only this time as his eyes burn it becomes much clearer. A tattered cloak made of patchwork that looks like human skin and a skull sticking outward like an axe beak’s. The empty eye sockets look at him and an arm that looks like it’s made of pin needs points to him.

 _“Two for the ferry?”_ It says with a voice that’s- nothing- it’s genuinely nothing. It exists only as words. They don’t even sound like his own thoughts.

 “Um, actually...” Flynn swallows, “We, kinda were- um- is there a way out?”

It tilts its head and it’s silent. Unbelievably silent.

_“Two for the ferry?”_

Flynn looks to Yuri for any ideas of what to think about this but it really should be obvious by this point that neither one of them knows what the fuck is going on. “Uh yeah, sure two for the ferry...”

 _“Payment, please.”_ That ungodly thin hand beckons for coin or something of the nature and Flynn reaches for his wallet grateful that just carries it of habit. _“No. Payment is one month to cross.”_

Another look between them. “So it takes a month.”

_“No. Payment is one month.”_

“Yeah, this is hell,” Yuri mutters under his breath.

 _“Payment, please.”_ The ferryman of whatever it is gestures towards its palm and hesitantly Flynn touches it. A cold sensation running through him like his sinuses being drained while his muscles clog with thick blood that leaves him woozy. If Yuri is anything to go by when he grabs the thing’s coat then he must look like shit because the moment Yuri touches it his skin goes pale and a little green.

The shivering and the shaking of their bodies as they sit on the boat makes for little comfort as Yuri stops looking out into the fog with a small scream. When Flynn attempts to look out Yuri pulls his head down and shakes his head. “Don’t.”

There’s no sound of the water or the ferryman. It’s again just his breath and Yuri’s foot nervously tapping on the boards.

“What did you even see?”

“You really do not want to know.”

Flynn wants to look just to see what has Yuri tapping his boot so feverishly and tensing his knuckles till they’re white but he also decides those cues are why he should trust Yuri’s judgement completely.

“Hey, um ferryman… person… thing… this is hell, right?” Yuri asks.

_“Hell? This is the divide. Hell, I know not of. There is only the living and the dead.”_

“So, hell isn’t real?”

Flynn takes in a deep breath.

_“No. There is only life and death.”_

“Cool. Cool. Glad to know.” Yuri laughs awkwardly and leans in, “You were right. Nothing good comes of mysterious doors. Why the fuck did we even come down here?”

A smile takes his lips as an idea enters his head, “This was all Estellise’s plan.”

“You lost me there. What?”

Flynn thinks of her figure by the grave and knows it couldn’t have just been coincidence. That the key was left for him to come here which means she’s here. “Estellise wanted us to follow her so we could bring her back! Think about it! It’s our Orpheus tale! Only this time we’ll succeed and not end up a dismembered head coveted by muses for prophecy.” He grips Yuri’s shoulders his eyes shining with a newfound glee. “That’s why we’re here! To rescue my girl!”

“So… what you’re saying is, that we came down to hell to resurrect Estelle and beat death?” Yuri says and Flynn nods. “Yeah, that makes sense. I’m not sure about Orpheus thing but I can get down with the rest of this. What’s the plan?”

Flynn knits his fingers together, “I have no clue. But, I’ll make one.”

So in the rocking of the boat as they travel on and on through the silence they wait till they cross into what is the land of the dead for Estelle. He’s getting his wife back! Okay, not his wife yet but it sounds much more impressive to say he’s going for his wife instead of his girlfriend. Especially, because while he could say fiancé Estelle was shot before she could say yet so he can’t even say ‘that’s my fiancé!’ which is at least somewhat impressive.

Look… it’s been a long day. And it’s not even over.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm still a mess who needs to do her hw... i'm crying

Flynn’s not really sure how long they’re floating along in the boat for but he knows it’s a fair amount of time before they come to a stop at a rocky pathway. The water below him is finally visible and well, he’s not sure how Yuri thought it was acid because to him it looks like bubbling red sludge and puss. He tries not to focus on it as he moves forward.

“Hey, ferryman-thing um, we’ll be able to actually get out of here right? We’re not dead so there’s like an exit for us somewhere around here and all that?” Yuri says once he’s out as well.

_“Only the living may return.”_

_Follow_

“I think that’s a yes?” Flynn supplies and it becomes clear that this guy can only say five-six things top. All of them equally useless. They just move on after a point and head up the stone path towards another cave opening that ends up being rather mundane once inside if not very wet and slimy. “I’m kind of getting sick of all this creepy cave atmosphere. I get this is the underworld but it’s overdoing it and it’s kinda cliché.”

Yuri stops and crosses his arms. “Flynn, we’re not in a cave. This is not a cave!”

“Haha, very funny, it’s a tunnel or some other synonym. You’ve done that joke a million times with me Yuri, get better material already.” Flynn huffs as he keeps going.

“No, I mean, this is not a cave! None of this is a cave.” Yuri says and Flynn looks at the slimy cave walls he’s gesturing to and he doesn’t get it. It’s obviously a cave. “Are you really not seeing this?”

“What should I be seeing?”

“How about the fact that we are in a forest full of trees that appear to be made of bones.” Yuri waves again and Flynn still doesn’t see it and he tells him exactly where they are. Yuri ponders a moment before asking him, “What did the creepy ferryman look like to you?”

And Flynn describes them while Yuri nods along to his words. “Funny, that. Um, that’s not what I saw at all.”

“What?”

“My guy was huge and had a face like a horse.” Yuri says, “And, I know that you don’t like birds and I don’t like horses. I think they’re weird.”

“So what? We’re seeing our own individual hell? Because I don’t like caves or slime but that’s not a forest of bones level horror.” Flynn quips and sidesteps a particularly large chunk of slime.

Yuri gives a small hum as he hits the wall and Flynn grimaces at squelch of his fist on the wall and slime that Yuri is completely unaware of being on his skin. “Nah, that is definitely a tree. I bet this is because between the two of us I’m the worst person.”

“Yuri…”

“No! No- this is true! I am a murderer. So it would make perfect sense that what I see is way more unpleasant than anything you see.”

Okay, even if that's true there is a lot to unpack there and they don't have time for all that. Still, "Hey, doesn't that imply that I'm going to hell too? Because everything I've seen has been also wholly unpleasant as well."

"I mean ferry-guy said hell didn't exist so probably not." It's mildly reassuring.

But, hey good to know that Flynn can't trust any of his senses because nothing is real and they are in the land of the dead. At least the path is straight.

"Hey, can we take a break?" Yuri says after what was probably a few hours of travel.

Flynn grimaced as he looked down at the ground and the thick slime that was thoroughly coating most of his shoes. "Can we not? I don't know what the floor looks like on your end but it's gross here."

"Fine. My feet are just starting to hurt." Yuri says and when Flynn brings up that they have walked much longer distances with no breaks the response is, "It is all bones on my end and they are not fun."

"When do you think we'll finally get anywhere?"

"Eventually."

* * *

 

"I think we're going in circles," Yuri says as another hour passes.

"You sure?"

He nods, "Yeah, I wasn't noticing it before but the trees keep repeating."

"Shit."

"It's fine well figure this put."

This leads to Flynn pacing in circles while Yuri sat on the ground tapping his fingers against his legs.

"So, obviously it's some kind of maze," Flynn says mostly to himself. "And usually this kind of thing has a puzzle." He stops in half turn. "That we cannot see."

"Or we can see it but it doesn't make sense from our end. Which is the worst kind of puzzle in my opinion." Yuri huffs.

Flynn nods, "Too bad we can't just swap."

"Or can we?" Flynn waited for that moment of brilliance where Yuri would just come up with a solution and then claim it was nothing. Because for real Yuri is brilliant and for some reason he never acknowledged it. What he wasn't expecting was for Yuri to squish his face and stare him in the eyes and look around before giving up entirely. "Well, I got nothing."

"If we just could get out of this cave!"

"You're the one in a cave, Flynn."

And like that, an idea, "Push me through the wall."

"Are you sure? Because I haven't said it but there is a huge reason I haven't tried going off path."

"Look, none of this is real. It can't be. Which means one of our perceptions is either real or they both are illusions."

Yuri takes in a deep breath. "Okay."

So... for various reasons, Flynn is going to gloss over the part where he learned that the slime was actually a corrosive acid that burned away specifically skin and the fact that the walls were definitely not permeable. He is glad that apparently Yuri could perceive this in any fashion outside of his agony screaming and vomiting.

Which also counts as corrodible material and thank fuck his skin would just grow back. But hey, Flynn got to learn how it felt to not have a face for a whole ten minutes. Fun.

As for Yuri's attempt going off path... "When this is over I think I'll need therapy."

"Oh, there is no think about this. I'm going to need industrial grade bleach for my psyche."

Long story short, they walked back the way they came to see if they could figure this out from the outside only to find they were in a completely new location once they walked out.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!”

"I don't care what the creepy boat guy said, hell is real and it is this."

It looked like they were still seeing things differently once they were out because Yuri said nothing about the rivers of boiling lava that were inexplicably able to stand in the vicinity off. Flynn still felt like his skin was searing off his body along with the rest of him but at least the laws of thermodynamics were apparently lenient in hell.

“I guess Dante was right. Hell is a frozen wasteland.” Yuri shivered and Flynn’s first thought was something the lines of ‘Fuck you, Yuri, that is not fair’ he would much rather feel like he’s freezing to death then slowly being incinerated.

“That’s supposed to be lowest levels. We cannot be that far in.” Flynn says as he plays a literal version of the floor is fucking lava as he jumps across the gaps towards what appears to be a bridge in the distance. “We haven’t even bumped into a single dead person.”

It’s very disorienting to just watch Yuri slide awkwardly forward instead burn or scream because he’s stepping in lava from his point of view. None of this makes any sense and Flynn is well past the point of caring. He’s here to rescue Estelle. He’s here for a girl that makes his life feel whole.

Over a bridge that appears to be made of spiders or towards a door that Flynn has to argue is a door because Yuri keeps saying it’s not a door but Flynn is certain it’s a door. It looks like a door to him, okay. What greets them once inside is a white room and a single smudge in existence like the last time. His eyes burn again and a migraine sings through his head.

“Fuck.”

Looking up now the smudge is now a withered old woman with wrinkles deeply set into her skin to a point of being folds in her flesh. Her mouth opens with a cackle that’s just as nothing as the ferryman in its sound. Toneless, but still a cackle.

_“Oh, good. You followed.”_

“Are you death?” Flynn asks and the woman’s withered body stands from the large intricate throne they’ve been sitting in made of human teeth.

_“I am nothing so great. Merely a reaper doing my job.”_

Yuri coughs and the woman’s void eyes look over to him, “Hey, we’re here with a mission.”

 _“A true living soul wandered in. Oh, we’ll have to fix that.”_ Yuri starts to protest but the woman waves a hand and he turns still and it dawns on Flynn that Yuri is choking to death and struggling for air.

“Yuri—"

The reaper turns back to Flynn and the length of her neck and the sagginess of her skin is unsettling. It makes him think of turtle with the long frizzy hair and the hunch to her back as she walks. Her hand grips his chin, the long nails gliding across his skin as her toothless mouth stretches wide. _“Now, you follow me. There’s someone waiting for you.”_

He swallows because he’s both unsettled by her appearance but soothed by this nothing voice.

_Follow_

Right, if he follows then he’ll find Estelle. That’s why he came down in the first place. To find Estelle.

_Follow_

Yeah, that’s the point. If he follows then he’ll find Estelle and then they can get out together. The hands cradle his head tightly and he feels the prick of fingernails driving into his skull but he’s caught in looking in that void of a mouth.

_Follow_

This reaper is only trying to guide him to where he needs to go. He feels something pulling at him from behind.

_Follow_

Blood starts dripping down his ears and his face. There’s a weird buzzing noise and that’s clogging his head and he feels in his nose.

  _“What a pliant soul.”_ Is he breathing?

The punch to the face answers that question as Yuri’s fist somehow manages to snap him out of it and he pulls away with a gasp. Yuri’s face is practically purple and he’s swaying on his feet. “Yuri!” Flynn starts to go into performing CPR because that seems as logical as anything only for Yuri to fall on the floor with a sudden thud. “No. No. No!”

_“Relax. He is fine.”_

Flynn feels at Yuri’s vitals and there is no pulse which is usually a clear sign a person is not ‘fine’. “Yuri is dead? How the fuck can you say he’s fine?”

Suddenly, as if in an attempt to be some sick punchline for a joke Yuri jolts upright and wheezing and crying. Gasping for air and touching his neck in desperate assurance. “What the hell was that about?” Flynn spits keeping his distance.

What he thinks is a sigh rumbles through the air. _“Only the living may return, but the true statement is only the dead may enter.”_

Yuri coughs and gives her glare just barely forcing out, “Well, funny that given that we’re here.” A long stream of ‘holy fuck’ coming from his mouth as he takes in deeper breaths.

 _“That is because only he was supposed to come.”_ The long nail points at Flynn and he feels defensive about that. Something about creepy grim reaper ladies point foreboding things at him just felt rude. _“We set out bait for him.”_

“Wait, so all of this was technically a trap? Estelle wasn’t actually sending a signal from beyond the grave to come rescue her or something? Also still wondering what the fuck that was for.”

_“What would she need rescuing from? She is dead. It’s a very stagnant and permanent condition.”_

Flynn bites his lip and quirks a brow, “Then why…?”

_“Because her death was an error. The soul that expired that night was yours but the one handling that fate made a slight… mistake. We were simply bringing you here to correct it.”_

Yuri gets back up slowly and looks between the two of them. “So what, you were going to exchange Estelle for Flynn? Do some weird mistake mumbo jumbo and fix who lived? Also why the fuck did you do that to me?”

The reaper creeps closer and they back away. _“No. We keep them both. An expired soul would eventually wander in here as they truly can’t be with the living lest they rot from the inside and that who’s body died above will stay below as the vice versa is true.”_

Flynn then says the most immature thing he could probably say in the face of a specter of death, “This is bullshit! I’m not even thirty! Fuck, I’m not even twenty-five. This isn’t fair!”

“Why the fuck did I just suffocate? What was the point of that?”

_“This is simply as fate was woven for you. The thread has spun its course and that is that.”_

Yuri cracks his knuckles, “Fuck that noise! We came to get Estelle. Go home. And live till we’re at least in our mid-fifties. Not to mention what the fuck was with _that_? No, seriously what?”

_“That is not how it works. Now follow me Flynn Scifo.”_

“No, I am with Yuri on this one,” Flynn says and he’s glad now that he did have to wear his formal commandant attire to a funeral because he does have a sword to stab with. “I came here to cheat death not join it.”

He swears those void eyes are rolling at them, _“I don’t know what myths you mortals have constructed but nobody escapes death. Ever. You are dead and so is Estellise.”_

“Oh, really?” Yuri says, “You just get to decide that without even consulting your boss? How do you know we couldn’t work something out?”

_“Death does care for your simple matters.”_

“How would you know? You haven’t asked!” Yuri snarks and Flynn watches the reaper straighten up and suddenly she looks much taller than she did before. Much more menacing. “You couldn’t know what death thinks.”

 _“Death is nothing like your mortal souls. Its something more than you could ever comprehend.”_ That empty nothing voice now takes on a deep thunderous nature to it. Like a clogging ozone scent in his mind as her body gets larger.

“Try me.” Yuri shrugs and the room shakes.

Flynn swallows and holds his ground because okay, this is looking more dangerous than he first thought. _“Death has no thoughts or opinions. Death is without any feeling or sympathy. Death is pure unbridled chaos which the reaper serves!”_

“Cool,” Yuri says and the ground shakes again Flynn through mouths at Yuri to shut up because the reaper lady is twenty feet tall now and her head is still eerily close to their faces despite that. “By that logic, we should be able to just take Estelle and walk out the front door.”

_WHAT_

“If death doesn’t have any opinions or thoughts by that logic why would it care about anybody escaping it.” Flynn waits to see where this goes while the tall looming specter of death seems to grow a foot. “The only way it could care if Death had a sense of duty or selfishness. You know, emotions. So, way I see it is that if we wanted death wouldn’t care about stopping us from rescuing our friend because otherwise, that’s rather human of it.”

That wide smiling black mouth is so close that if she breathed Flynn’s certain he would feel her breath on his skin. “Yeah, that’s right. If we challenged death to get our lives back then they couldn’t technically deny us because that is an opinionated statement because approval requires some thought in favor of a statement along with denial.”

The ground shakes harder, “Therefore, we challenge death for my and Estellise’s life.”

The shaking stops and something that feels like infuriated laughter, or spiders crawling on your skin, fills the room. “ _Very well, then._ ” Her head pulls away and a new passage opens from the white space in the walls leading to a black hole. _“Inside you will see Death and you will be given a gauntlet to prove yourself.”_

As Flynn steps through he briefly he hears Yuri once more ask about the suffocation before giving up. “You okay?”

Yuri keeps touching his throat, “No.”

“Great thinking back there.” Flynn laughs and he wonders if it’s good that he’s getting used to just walking through voids.

“Thanks. I can’t believe it worked.”

“You can’t believe it?” Flynn was so close to just stabbing a grim reaper with a sword and hoping it worked.

* * *

 

It’s not a long walk but what they find this time is a room that’s incredibly mundane. Like it could belong to anybody. Sitting in a chair is a woman Flynn knows all to well and he looks at Yuri just to be sure and his eyes are just as wide. “Mom?”

His mother, no it can’t be, stands up. “So that’s it.” It sounds like her but there’s something wholly empty in every little motion of the body and the eyes. Like a doll. “Welcome, you have challenged me.”

“Yes.”

“I will neither accept or decline but you are welcomed to proceed on your own.” His mother’s body, face, posture, all of it is unbelievably still and stiff. No motion or gesture of any sort. “Through that door is where the souls of this domain reside. Travel and find who you’re looking for. If you return then I shall fix the threads of fate so that you may live for that allotted time you should have had.”

Flynn swallows at the cold face of his mother looking him dead in the eyes. “That’s it? No catch?”

“No.”

“Nothing at all?” Yuri says raising a brow. “No expected obstacles and such?”

“No. You must simply encounter the souls you know till you find the one you seek and return.”

Way too easy sounding! “What if we fail? Is there no price we pay for all of this?”

“What could you even give me. Everything eventually falls into my domain.” There is no question in death only fact. Statement. Truth. Even though it wears his mother’s face it’s not a soul with tone or emotion. It does not question. It just is.

And fuck, it’s terrifying.

“There is one thing to say.” Death points to Yuri, “You are not dead. Your soul is not near death and therefore this land will reject you. The further in you travel the more it will try to torture you and as you challenged together the same shall apply to both souls. It is fair to state.”

“Take care of your flesh. It is still living.”

The door opens and Death is gone and on that ominous note Yuri looks him in the eye’s and says “You said this was an Orpheus myth but it’s looking more like Dante’s Inferno minus the whole religious propaganda and symbolism.”

“Shut up.”

This is about rescuing Estelle and apparently also saving his life. Through the door deeper into the land of the dead.

   


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what I'm doing at any point in time in life or writing

 

Flynn feels very small when he opens his eyes after entering the door, the thought occurs to him that he’s lying on his side but even when he sits up he’s not really sure that his perspective is accurate… Or where he is in the first place. It’s familiar but it’s also incredibly foreign, a location he knew from somewhere and sometimes but has corroded with age to the weird sepia landscape he’s looking at everything from. Yuri’s nowhere to be seen and as Flynn sits up he realizes his armor is missing and his hands look tiny. The callouses and little scars are gone and they look young- childish.

He’s in a home, it’s somewhere warm and bright with a fire crackling in the hearth. It takes him a bit of looking around for it to finally hit him, mostly it’s the rocking-horse by the window with the broken ear, this was his home in the public quarter. The home he lived in with his mother just before his father died.

He spies a mirror and looks at a reflection that he struggles for a second to recall is his face from when he six. So this is his starting point? Why’s he a kid?

There’s humming coming from somewhere and there’s a refreshed familiarity to it that he’d know anywhere. He runs, albeit clumsily, to the source and he sees her again only this time it’s not the same as minutes ago this time she’s alive. She’s smiling and Flynn thinks about he had somewhat forgotten what she looked like outside of illness. How his last memories of her had been ones full of the smell of disease and shit. Her lips crackly and thin with sullen cheeks that dared to always smile at him despite his tears. Sores and thin hands that bulged with veins that he always thought were disgusting… So much of her was disgusting when she died.

But she looks nothing like she did then. She looks perfect.

Exactly as she should.

“Mom? Is it really you this time?” He asks again and she turns from the pot of what smells like the tomato soup she’d serve with grilled cheese when the money was thin. He really liked it when she made it.

Her eyes are wet and she pulls him into a hug sobbing. He ignores the way air is tugged from his lungs or the way she’s pulling on his face as if checking if he’s real. “I was… I- Flynn!” Those welts of tears clog up her blue eyes and Flynn thinks about how he’d almost forgotten how much he missed them.

He smiles and she holds even tighter. “Mom, you’re choking me.”

“Sorry!” Norien pulls back with a small gasp and gives an awkward laugh. “I was so happy to… How old are you now?”

“Well, I don’t look it right now, but I’m twenty-four. And I’m Commandant. I’m not really sure why I look like this.”

She her smile slowly dropping into a frown as fixes at his hair. “I… would you like some soup, sweetie.”

“Sure.” He has time for this, to just see his mom. Just talk with her over a meal. She pulls out a chair for him and it’s odd to sit there as a little kid again. “Um, can you explain this?”  

Norien turns away in shame, “It’s funny but everything is only as it was in life. I- I don’t know you as and adult.” Her face turns back again and Flynn sees that decrepit state from when she died creep across her features. “And you don’t know me any other way. You can’t. My story ended there and your story didn’t. That’s… that’s all there is too it.”

It makes sense… but as Flynn looks at the bowl placed in front of him his heart clenches in pain at the idea. It’s true, he doesn’t know his mother any other way. He only knows her as the beautiful woman who died of illness when he was a kid, he doesn’t know what she would been when he was growing up past this stage. His father doesn’t know him past the age of five and the memories Flynn has are so faint and scattered that he almost forgets him entirely at times.

He’s forgotten some nights what it was like to have a parent. Because that part ended. Because it died…

“Is… is dad nearby?”

Norien freezes. “No, he’s not. He’s not here.”

“Then I’ll guess I’ll bump into him at some point.” He’s going to be traversing this whole place anyway… “Shit I need to find Yuri.”

His mother scrunches her brow, “I know you’re not six but don’t swear.”

“Yes, mom.” He smiles and takes a spoonful and the flavor is just like he remembers it. Acidic, a little sweet, tomatoey, and faded.

Something seems to click in her mind, “Wait, both you and Yuri are here? Like at the same time?”

“Yes. And for some reason he’s not here.”

Her eyes widen, “What did you do? Oh, god… oh…”

“What are you thinking?” Flynn huffs.

“I should have seen the signs…” Norien bites her thumb and now he’s worried. “You two were such gay little boys!”

“WHAT?” Flynn exclaims and he’s not sure he believes what’s happening. What is she conjuring in that head of hers? “I think I need to explain things.”

She grabs his hands and looks deep into his eyes sullenly. “No, I understand. The world is cruel Flynn but I thought you two would be stronger than that.”

“Yeah… I need to explain this. What do you think happened?”

“Gay suicide pack. Zaphias always had terrible attitudes towards that. Unable to truly express your love in public you in heartbreak decided to be together in death. Hands clasped with as your both placed the noose around the neck and gave each other a goodbye kiss.” She’s crying. Flynn took in a deep breath because this is not the first time something like this has come up and frankly, he kinda hoped he could escape these allegations in death.

More importantly, was his mom always like this?

“You know it’s funny, but my dead wife also thought we were dating for a really long time. That’s why she kept saying we were in a polyamory which were not and never were.”

“You guys never hooked up?”

Flynn tried to think of the most delicate way he could put the specific reason he’d never been able to have a relationship with Yuri. “When you experience puberty while sharing a room the idea of dating each other is absolutely disgusting because you know more about that person in certain ways more than you ever want to. And even when you try to get past that… you just know you’ll hate each other if you actually go through with it. Now, let’s get off this topic… Mom, I need to explain some things”

“Like, what?”

He starts to explain to her the nature of the circumstances that brought him here.

“There’s a beautiful girl I’ve come to love very much over the years. She’s smart and stubborn. She’s too willful for her own good half the time and she knows every way to get under my skin and drive me insane. She’s the second most infuriating person I’ve ever wanted to know and care for.” He can’t help the smile on his face as he thinks of Estelle.  “So, I came to rescue her.”

“We’re gonna get married and have kids! We’re going to live in a house together and complain about what cups to buy and the furniture.” Flynn feels the widest smile crawl on his face. “And I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking to yelling at Rita for visiting too much and leaving her stuff in our house because she already does that Estelle’s place in Halure.”

“I’m looking forward to Yuri teaching my kids swear words behind my back so he can be their cool uncle.” Flynn feels his smile shake a little because this is why he wants her back… He’s looking forward to living and seeing his mom seeing that this death as he eats now cold soup…

If he didn’t come here, if he lived without her, she’d fade away. Because the more his mother talks and smiles the less familiar she seems. The more he realizes how little he knew and remembered of her because that sickly image keeps peering out from under her skin. In death he’d come back to an Estelle forever stalled like this.

Flynn stands up and walks away because he needs to go and it’s been long enough. He needs to find her, “I’m sorry. I’ll be back.”

Her hand clasps his, “Take me back with you.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Flynn tries to subtly slip his hand out but Norien’s grip is tight. “Mom, let go of me, please.”

The grip tightens. “Flynn, please- please, just stay here longer. Or just… stay! Why do you need to go?”

“I told you, I have a big dream waiting for Estellise and I.” He yanks his wrist free and heads to the door but Norien stands in front of it.

“You could have all that here! You two can be together in your own world with everyone you knew in life!”

Flynn shakes his head in disbelief, “No I can’t. I can’t see what kind of person everyone I know back home becomes. I can’t see the lives I want to make with her. I can only be as I am now and I will be more than that.”

“You’re my little boy,” Norien’s voice starts to distort as the skin on her face and seem to burn like it did on the funeral pyre. A smell fills the air and Flynn feels dizzy as sores start to appear on his arms and his body start to shake with a thick wet cough.

Oh, of course it never be that easy.

“You don’t need to face the world. It’s cruel and hard. Aging is agony and right now you don’t have to ever know that.” Her voice is nails scrapping on a chalkboard and she’s so tall above him. “You can just be my safe child. You and Yuri both.”

She’s a threat but he can do this. “Sorry, Mom.”

Flynn charges at her and barrels them both through the door and once more he’s falling through void.

* * *

 

When Yuri woke up, he was in the Lower Quarter or at least some facsimile of it where the walls sky was red and turned like a boiling cauldron. A girl around probably seventeen looked at him in confusion when he looked over his shoulder. He remembers her from the room before with Death and he wonders who she is.

“Hey?” He says in confusion because there’s nothing familiar about her and if anything he’s not able to really make her out other than the long dark hair. He cocked his head, “do I know you?”

Her voice comes out distorted and scattered like static, “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t but I don’t know you, I think.” He keeps walking forward and as he’s going, he sees children and people shambling around in a way that reminds him of when he was a kid.

When Norien died of illness.

“Was I the first death you saw?” Yuri has to actually think about that because he’s grown up knowing and seeing death in every corner. He’s seen a lot of it. Mountains of it if you included strangers and animals.

“Who knows,” Yuri shrugs and thinks she must be someone from when he was too young to remember. “So do you by walk every dead soul you’ve met or seen when you die?”

“Not all but most. The more familiar and important the clearer they are.”

It’s too silent in hell for anyone’s comfort. A brief thought catches his mind about the first death he’d ever known. One so young that he obviously wouldn’t have a face to it, “Your name Hanna Quinn?”

“Yes, it is.” Well, that explains it.

“I know you died before he was born, but what did you think of your son?” He asks hesitantly. He’s curious but not immensely so. He’s never known this woman outside of what he’s been told, her name, that they had the same hair, how she died, that Lowell was his dad’s last name and he died way before he was born. She’s not a mother so much of a vague concept that occasional slips into his mind while being idle. If anything, Norien is his mother figure and this woman just existed.

But, he is curious.

Her eyes narrow in the obscured blurriness of her features. “I’ve met a few people who knew me and they’ve told me about him. Personally, I don’t really care. He’s not my son. I didn’t raise him and I didn’t really want him.”

It stings a little but Yuri expected something along the lines. “You really don’t think anything?”

“A stranger is a stranger. Even if you’re him it doesn’t change the fact I never lived long enough to so much as name you. I have no frame of reference for you. You’re just a blur I’ve never known.”

In how many lives do those words apply to him? Is this all death is shreds of memories mixed in horror as he continues walking slowly she disappears from sight and Yuri wants to stay and ask her things but there’s no point in that. He keeps forward as the buildings grow taller and it isn’t until he stops and looks at himself he realizes that he’s gotten smaller- younger if his body is anything to go by.

He sees Norien calling for him from a window and a part of him wants to stop and see her but instead he keeps moving because this is a test and he doesn’t have time for this. He sees the people that Yuri briefly remembers as being the victims of living in the Lower Quarter. The people who didn’t survive hard winters or were the orphans nobody could take in.

Sometimes just the ones who got sick and died.

There’s a lot of rats crawling around that he sees darting in and out of the corners.

“This place just gets weirder.” He turns the corner and sees a kid face first on the ground with blood dripping from his head. On closer inspection the face is familiar and it takes Yuri a second to recognize that this is a probably twelve-year-old Flynn.

He lightly slaps Flynn awake and thank fuck he recognizes him near instantly. “Shit, we were gay looking kids.”

“Really, that’s the first thing your going to say to me?” Yuri huffs and offers a hand that Flynn dismisses and gets back up on his own.

“Look, I just had a very weird experience with my mother. And, I think it’s safe to say that we need to keep forward and avoid dead people.”

“You say that but you forget the dysentery outbreak when we were fifteen,” Yuri says and Flynn is rightfully annoyed.

“Why did we have to grow up in such a shit hole?” Flynn mutters as they continue towards what they know is the Public Quarter. Yuri wants to give a smartass answer but frankly, this whole thing has him too bummed out. He does get an explanation on the whole being kids thing though.

And ya know, sure. This might as well happen.

They’ll keep moving forward even as the ground turns to sludge and fire or the sharp winds literally cut at their skin. Even when Flynn turns to him at one point and says, “Yuri, that man has no skin,” and the only thing he can do is say tell him to burry it and keep walking. Because Yuri’s been seeing that level of shit since moment one and he’s been working really hard to tune it out and keep a straight face.

And somehow, despite the fact that at one point he definitely thought he was going to shit bricks he’s managing to keep up the act.

Looking onward though he is left wondering if this really is what his afterlife is gonna be. Just a stream of dead people and his friends somewhere in the mix. He can’t tell if he likes it. It certainly better than the idea that it all just ends there but at the same time, it’s just static. Nothing will change and it’s always going to be the same and that kinda sounds like shit. A place where nothing grows and comes to life as eternity seems pretty close to hell no matter how you slice is.

“Ya know, I would have preferred reincarnation as a system personally.” He says and Flynn idly strokes his chin.

“Hm, I’d be fine with this. You never have to forget anyone and you can still reconnect in new ways. It’s static but it’s something you can still expand on if you really try.” Flynn hums as they stand at the entrance to a building that appears to be made out of live animals stretched in horrific and gory fashion.

“Uck, now who’s making it gay.” Yuri teases and jabs Flynn in the side.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't originally going to split this chapter up between the Yuri part and the Flynn part but tonal wise Yuri's is just kinda ending up different enough that I was fine separating them into two different chapters since his is mostly written anyway. So yeah, that'll probably be done soon enough...

 

At some point, you just kinda got sick of walking through void and dead people leering at you. Shocking, yes, but it does happen. Now, that doesn't mean there haven't been shit your pants moments that had happened since they entered of course but a fair amount of the time it just seemed dull.

Flynn found that further they went the more the air bit into his skin and the colder everything turned in a way that reminded him of when they entered hours ago… Was it hours? Honestly, it’s hard to tell. It’s so surreal seeing scraps of people Flynn had known in life walk around him and Yuri with silent footsteps around them and with little whispers.

It’s odd, but he never realized how many people he knew who were just dead… It’s not even important people it’s just people. At one point Yuri and Flynn stopped and realized that an elderly woman they’d known for years was here and therefore…

He hadn’t even noticed. It had been years since he’d last actively talked with Old Abigail who lived near the edge of the Lower Quarter and the realization left him with a sour feeling. Yeah, she wasn’t anyone that he ever really cared about but he didn’t even notice her absence. Didn’t remark on her not being in her chair sitting on the porch staring with her beady eyes waving at him with a smile. She always did that even when they were kids.    

 She was just gone...

"Did you notice?" Flynn asked as they passed her noting that they at least seemed to be back to normal physically. Seems they were catching up with time which was a relief because as dumb as it seems to say that part had been bothering him a fair amount.

Yuri scrunched his nose and his brow twitched a little before a small frown took his face. "Yeah, she was one of the ones who didn't make it in the attack or- no wait… She died the summer before. I’m mixing her with-" Yuri snapped his fingers hunting for the name, “- Olive! That was it. Yeah. I forgot about Olive.”

Right, Olive, she was the kooky woman who seemed to get by on preaching gospel at people acting as a midwife. She was nice and he’d been sad when he heard she died. Most of the people they knew as family or dear friends had survived the attack on Zaphias but not everyone in the whole of Lower Quarter. Just a large handful that had thankfully compromised of enough people they cared for.

The ground was blood under their feet and Flynn wished that something- anything- here gave off a scent because the lack of was making him paranoid. He hated how quiet it was. Their feet didn't even splash.

Death is quiet and Flynn is coming to hate that.

Flynn's not even sure where they're heading to. At first, he thought this was just some twisted version of Zaphias but the roads don't lead anywhere except to doors that lead endlessly to the same. It seems and the longer they walk the less he's sure that this is even supposed to be Zaphias or just something scrapped from their memories. It may not be real in the slightest and they’ve been lying unconscious in a dark tomb for hours.

What is anything? Flynn shakes his head and ignores the goosebumps forming down his arms. No time to get philosophical.

Right now, they just need to find Estelle and get out. Where was she? Logic told him she’d probably be at the castle but walking towards there just resulted in dead ends or more doors to nowhere.

"How long you think we've been down here?" Yuri asks and Flynn pauses in his steps a hint as he thinks it over. There's no real source of light to judge anything by and there have been more than few moments where he's certain that it had to be hours but other times it seemed like mere seconds had gone by since they met up. Like he knows time is passing but it’s all sloshing around in his brain giving him a headache.

"Who even knows?" Flynn huffed and they decided to take a seat on some brick porch steps.

"I just sort of realized that Alexei is probably down here," Yuri says and Flynn snorts.

"How do you sort of realize that?"

"Well, geeh, Flynn it's such a long day it just sort of slipped my mind that every person I killed happens to be down here." Yuri wisps. “I even have you here.”

Flynn blinked aggressively because he really just does not like to think about that hell of a labyrinth. They were wandering in there slaying bizarre duplicates for hours trying to get fake gald and the main reason Flynn absolutely refused to step in most those fights was because the only thing more disturbing than watching Yuri, and one time Estelle, kill him was the visual of him killing himself.

It’s funny because he knows, in theory, he should be more disturbed by watching other people kill him but he was more bothered by the idea of being able to watch up close and feel what it be like to essentially stab himself. He’s not even gonna think about how wrong it was to watch Karol… Yeah, no he’s not going there. It was mind-bleach worthy enough the first time no point in going around dredging that back up.

Not even gonna touch the Estelle duplicate because… no. Just no.

“Must you bring that up?”

“You have any better ideas of what to talk about? Because I don’t.”

“We could literally talk about anything else! We could be talking about how when we get out of here I’m going to have an awesome wedding with a beautiful girl and you get to probably be my best man,” Flynn said with a grin spreading on his face at the idea. Yeah, he’s getting out of here and marrying Estelle.

Yuri’s eyes widened, “Oh… wait- shit when did you propose?!”

“Did- did I not tell you?” Flynn hesitated, “At all?”

Yuri shakes his head and lets out a drawn-out ‘no’ and Flynn debates telling him the whole of it. It’s still too fresh to talk about but then that’s also why it’s the best time. If all goes well then this will all just irrelevant to a degree and can be buried in some hole in his endless well of emotional lifelong baggage. Plus, as much as Flynn wants to fully deny it failure is definitely an option. So he tells Yuri about that night and about his failed proposal… God, he can’t believe he didn’t even bring that up once just accidently since her death. But, then again he’d been trying hard to just not focus on how she was dead and deal with everything.

And he tries to keep smiling as he talks- well not smiling- just not look like he might cry because there isn’t time for that even if they are resting their legs. Not like Yuri would care much if he did start slowly blubbering out his words like an idiot. It’s one of the things he’s grateful for about Yuri.

Sometimes you just have to cry.

A hand squeezes the one at his side tightly, “We’ll get her back. Don’t worry.”

Thanks.

He lets go to stand up brushing off some of the dirt from his pants. “Come on, no time to waste! I don’t know about you but I do not want to find out that we can experience dehydration here.”

“Death said our flesh was still living so I hope that’s not the case.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think we can drink blood,” Yuri said as they started walking through the remnants of twisted buildings with bizarrely smooth surfaces and eyes watching them from impossibly small seams.

Flynn ignored the squishy and plush feel under his feet with each step. “I really hope it’s blood if we do.” He didn’t want to even think about what it else it could be. More acid was a possibility and he’s already felt his flesh burn and melt multiple times in uncomfortably short amount of time.

The river of blood slowly seemed to trickle away as they walked and the appearance of the city faded away to more of that darkness and Flynn reached out for Yuri. Last thing they want is to get separated. In all this silence and cold he’s grateful for the warm hand to anchor him in any way.

It really is far too cold here.

“You know, it’s not your fault, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean… the whole being slated for death thing. It’s bothering you, right?”

His eyes stung again which seemed to be an ongoing theme of this place. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he technically shouldn’t be seeing any of this in the first place. A part of him is still admittedly a little bitter at the idea that he was going to die so young. He’s had a few assassination attempts but none were ever close to being successful and he always figured his natural skill would keep him safe in the event he was ever actually in danger.

It just seemed really needlessly unfair given everything he’d been through and now he was supposed to accept that a grim reaper took the wrong life by mistake.  

A smell drifted in the air and Flynn was overwhelmed slightly by the sudden new sense in his nose. It was that of churned earth and brimstone but also…yes, something hickory like or ash. And a blood tone that felt like it had been sprayed with a noblewoman’s expensive and ornate perfume. “You smell that?” Flynn looked to Yuri but he realized that he was gone again.

When did…?

He rubbed his eyes and noted the dead grass under his feet and the growl of something behind him. A guttural wolf-like sound that was far deeper and booming and he felt the humid and sticky breath on the back of his neck.

Shit! He quickly retreated from the snap of the jaw and turned to look at whatever the hell was in front of him. It reminded him of the Gattusos that attacked Halure all those years ago only this one towered over him gangly on its hind legs with an unnaturally large head that split in places with multiple mouths some of which looked human.

Swords jutted out from its back alongside javelins and spears as it lumbered toward him. Reaching out with thin little hands that were clearly a child’s. Flynn unsheathed his sword and readied a stance. This was- it was yes- some form of Halure.

But everything was on fire and the tree seemed more like a black eldritch horror of rot and eyes that squirmed and twitched like it was laughing. The buildings open ribcages with strange impish like creatures that laughed and seemed to be feasting out of armor that he instantly recognized as being from the knights. There was so much smoke in the air and it stung but not like how smoke should more like he was being stung by wasps biting all over his skin.

One of the monster’s mouth fell open and a long clumsy tongue dangled in the air. Another from somewhere he couldn’t see spoke. “Well, if it isn’t Lieutenant Scifo,” Flynn’s eyes widen because he knows that voice.

“Captain Feizra?” He says narrowing his eyes as he realizes one of the many eyeballs is indeed very similar to the old red-mud brown he remembers her having. In a way, he should have seen it coming that he’d bump into his old captain or even just the event of the Halure barrier failing. Not many died, only three thankfully, but it was still enough and one of them had been the titan of woman he’d called Captain for many years.

Why was her body so distorted? Why was all of this so much more hellish than the last area?

She inched closer and Flynn slid back still keeping a firm gaze on her. “You…” The ground shook and rumbled as all the mouths started to open themselves up revealing various mismatched sets of teeth. “You!”

The sound tears through the air as the earth cracked below and Flynn jumped back as large black tendrils erupted from the ground below writhing around like worms. Feizra charged after him all of the mouths snapping as he Flynn backstepped looking for a path. The ground was giving way to nothing but these black roots all looking at him with their beady little eyes.

Flynn struck his sword off her hide barely piercing her flesh and all he got was a laugh. Shit. Okay, so that’s how it’s gonna be. Fine, he can improvise.

He ducked from a large swing of the Gattuso's head and caught his breath when one of the spears on its back almost pierced him. He is getting real of tired all these impossible angels and anatomy. He tried to move but his leg was caught and he felt weighed down by a root wrapping itself around his leg.

Flynn swiftly hacked at the root thankful that Feizra was slow as fuck for a monster. Just as she was about to strike again he finally felt the root gave way and was forced to hold a breath as thick smoke billowed out from the root blinding Feizra for a moment.

He took off running again lashing at the roots as he passed hoping that one of them would break as he searched for the exit. It has to be around here somewhere!

The strange impish residences peaked from their houses laughing at him as they threw heavy stones at his face. He raised an arm to the stones, looking frantically for a way out. He doesn’t see the usual roads or anything even beyond the town and the only path seems to be heading straight up.

Look

Look

C’mon where’s that door?

He sees it looking towards the tree- a red door in the center of the trunk at least fifteen feet off the ground.

“Great,” Flynn muttered coughing on the smoke. Why is she even trying to kill him anyway? Sure they weren’t friends but it’s not like Feizra was ever particular harsh. She was always decently strict with well enough grounded morals.

He managed to cut one of the mouths that dangled of her head and was ready to keep moving only to find himself stuck. When the fuck did they grab his waist?

“You rat!” Her jaws lingered over him and Flynn struggled to think of a way out of this. “You slimy little toad!”

“Captain Feirza please, calm down! We- you- this doesn’t need to happen.” He needs to get his legs free- goddammit! Being pinned down is not what he needs, “I don’t understand why-“

One of the thin little arms reached out towards him and Flynn knows he can’t dodge this. “You don’t even remember what you did?”

“No!” For the love of god let her start monologuing. Monologuing has saved his life more times than he could care to count.  “Tell me.”

A laugh mixed with screaming- “You really don’t remember?” The human eye looks down on him with shaking hate and disdain.

Shit-

_What Flynn remembered from that day most of all was the order draw the monsters out of the town. That things had gone too far south and it was better for them all to see if they could lure the monsters out and take them out now that so many had decided to rampage through the town. Wouldn’t change the fact that he’d just watched a woman nearly get her neck bitten off by a rampaging monster or that you could hear- taste the fear in the air, lemony and somewhat moldy musk his mind had supplied- but it was the right move to take._

_Flynn remembered banging his shield to get the attention of a Gattuso mother to follow him and was being chased through the roads as he lead it towards the ambush of archers waiting to strike. What he didn’t guess that one would pop in from the side and nearly rip him through._

_It was luck._

_Of course, his luck proved ill for his captain. Feizra pushed him out of the path and parried the one coming at her front. Sadly, the one following Flynn got her from behind._

Thinking on that… Well, it does make some sense.

But he didn’t get her killed. He didn’t act rashly or poorly. He just hadn’t been able to save her. He just wasn’t fast enough- or strong enough- or whatever the hell skillset would have changed things. And yes, he’d been upset and like most the brigade they mourned her but the biggest part of there job was that they were prepared for this.

You put on a uniform and there’s a chance you’ll be buried in it.

Flynn hasn’t ever intentionally murdered anyone. Self-defense that went too far- unfortunately yes. He’d be lying if he said there weren’t ever moments when fighting the knights loyal to Alexei he wasn’t left with a heavy heart and the realization the body had gone limp despite himself. Or just moments where he was backed into a corner with no way. It wasn’t often and he never took pride in it and he tried to keep it from happening.

But this- He managed to get the sword up into the monstrous jaw causing Feirza to scream and back up long enough for him to hack the vines away and get distance again. “Captain Feizra you have to understand that what happened then was completely beyond my control?”

“I shouldn’t have died!”  

Duck left

Move right

A slash to the back

Near stumble on a root

“I wasn’t supposed to die!”

Those imps throwing rocks that occasionally hit his head.

“You should be dead! You disobeyed me! That’s why I died isn’t it?!”

“What was I supposed to do?” Flynn spat as wiped blood out of his eyes. Fucking rocks!

“It’s your fault! All of you let me die! All of you!” He managed to hack off one those little arms and watched how the wound seemed to be reforming. “I don’t deserve this! I don’t deserve to be dead!”

Is that it? She’s throwing a fit and trying to kill him because she died and he just happened to be around. Because if Flynn had been just a bit slower he might have been the one to die instead. Flynn shook his head and slashed again, “What- so you’re telling me you’re angry that you,” He cut throw the other arm, “are dead- that thing we all go through with? And that- that is your problem?”

He was practically at the base of the tree wondering how in the world he’s going to get up there. It’s not exactly easy jumping distance without a running start. But the fact that Flynn actually worried for a minute that he might have done something awful and just not remembered it- fuck, he is not in the mood for this. He does not care the fact that he might have been forced to have intense introspection on his morality that he’s worked so hard to keep in check only to find out his old boss is just throwing a postmortem temper tantrum.

He knows she’s talking but- no- just no! “You know what annoys me the most about all of this coming down to hell thing?”

Slice, “That not only was I supposed to die young but that apparently I also took down my fiancé with me.”

“Dying young? People do that,” a useless kick that just felt satisfying, “I know that. Am I happy that it’s supposed to happen to me? No.”

“But the fact that Estellise ends up a victim by happenstance- by pure accident- is the part I can’t stand. You just died.”

And yeah- maybe Flynn could have done something- but that’s not the point. Death is so meaningless and random and while you can be pissed at it happening to you it doesn’t give you the right to throw a fit and hurt people.

If it was him no shit, he’d be pissed but he wouldn’t be blaming Estelle for just being there. Or maybe this is what it does to you. Makes you alone and bitter to a point of resentment. Either way, Flynn has better more important things to do to let a dead captain yell at him from beyond the grave when he’s on a time crunch to save his fiancé.

He jumped out of the way of a tentacle swooping from above. He wants to bring her back more than even him returning. If he was supposed to die and there was no way to fix it with them both returning he’d probably accept it.

Not be happy. Accept it.

Because she was supposed to be alive even if he originally was not. She had more life planned ahead and sometimes life is cruel and is cut short by death. Flynn wants to bring her back and have his happy ending and he has a chance.

He’s going to put death off for a time for her. The whole tree shakes and to his surprise, a jaw opens up to swallow Feizra from below leaving Flynn to run on the tendril as the ground dissolves.

Shit. The trunk eclipses him like a dark shadow and the imps roar in laughter as they float in the sludge and smoke that covers the ground and him. In seconds he’s struggling to swim through the sea and eyeballs feeling teeth scrape at him as the door comes crashing down at him in a huge wave. In a panic, he grips at the door even as he’s slammed under the sludge.

It’s burning and it clogs his nose and ears instantly as he fumbles blindly for the handle before managing to swing it open.

A vortex opens and Flynn is swung down through the gateway into a new void this time one of white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit that an experiment for this fic is to see what aspects of existentialism I can explore while also just looking through my old sketchbook and seeing if I can make my horror sketches worse.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the joke title for this fic could be 'new void who dis?'

The first time Yuri encountered death he’d been a dumb four-year-old staring down at the corpse of a mangy dog. He’d stared in confusion at the stillness of the body and the rapid buzzing noise of the insects feasting on flesh wondering why the dog was just lying there flat on its side. Why wasn’t it annoyed by the flies? Why was its tongue just sticking out? Why was it just… like that?

The way life danced and moved around death- the smell- the way nobody really cared- none of it made sense to his dumb-fuck kid brain. He’d asked Hanks about it because he thought he’d stumbled across something unique. Something new and to him yes it was but in the grand scheme of the world, it was nothing.

It was old. It was ancient. Timeless.

Yuri didn’t like to think much about the whole existential nature of life because it really only made life feel like a sad drag and usually, he didn’t even have time to focus on it. He spent so much of his energy focused on living that he never found is necessary to think about the whole eventual death and the slow aging of his own body aspect of things. But when he did he drifted back to what he’d thought that day when Hanks had explained death.

When things die they just do. They’ll stop and it’s the end. They can’t cause pain or feel joy. There’s nothing and what becomes of their memories and stories is left to those alive and anything else is irrelevant. That’s it. That’s how it goes. Bad people die and it’s up to the living to make a difference in all of it.

But as for what comes next… Yuri had just kind of assumed it was likely nothing or maybe that reincarnation idea he’d been told about might be true. Heaven and hell just seemed a little too farfetched for him due to the whole what ‘even is morality’ aspect of it all. Who would even get to decide on that matter? Is there a points system? Is it decided by a group? What constitutes being bad enough for hell? What happens to babies? There was a possibility in it but he just never really believed it. Guess he knows the answer now. A little disappointed by it- not gonna lie reincarnation sounded fun.

It’s just death.

Rita had said that Estelle had been shot in the neck; he rubbed at his throat feeling a burn that was all in his head. Did she suffocate first? Or had it been blood loss? Which one was the least painful? Which one was better to imagine? Did she writhe in pain while Flynn couldn’t do anything or had she gone limp far too quickly? There were so many possibilities, and all were awful. Horrendous. Terrifying.

He’d been ready to kill Estelle before but back in the moment. Ready to if he really couldn’t bring her back cut her down and free her from that pain, but it’s different to choose to kill someone to end their suffering than to watch it happen. When you hurt people in a fight there usually wasn’t time to think about how you may have fractured their rib and the pain.

Yuri feels like a dick for asking Flynn if he thinks she suffered more than necessary. Of what the whole thing had been like. Being left with just a letter to tell you along with your imagination conjured some pretty fowl images.

Should have kept his big mouth shut.

“No, it’s fine,” It’s not fine. Your shoulders are doing that thing where they tense up like they’re gonna shake only instead your brow ends up twitching and he knows exactly what it means.

“Forget I said it.”

“I think she bled out first so it probably wasn’t that long.” Shut up. “She was dead at least by the time medical arrived.” Shut up. “Really though there’s not much you can do for that sort of wound.”

Seriously, shut up!

“Hey, what do you mean probably be your best man? Who else would it be?”

Flynn finally stopped and crossed his arms, “I have other friends that can be my best man Yuri. Not to mention being a best man is a lot of responsibility and I don’t fully trust you.”   

“I’m totally responsible!”

“Yeah, I still don’t trust you with my bachelor party.” That’s fair.

He grabbed onto Flynn’s hand once everything got all pure void emptiness again. Seriously, is death like the night sky? Secretly just empty spaces of disappointing void with a few dots in between. That is so lame. Not to mention as fine as he is holding hands given how many times they’ve done it today it was starting to become a little awkward. Not to mention his palms kept getting sweaty and he couldn’t wipe them on anything because he couldn’t let go and Flynn’s were also getting sweaty. So it’s just two gross sweaty palms holding each other in hell!

It’s not gay. It’s moist.

And that’s the real sin going on here.

Did the temperature drop again?           

He realized Flynn was gone when he managed to close his fist in on empty air and the ground gave way under into what could be a stream- a lake- ocean? It was pretty deep and cold whatever the fuck it was. God, so much of this place was cold. Where was the fire and brimstone he was promised?

He waded through the water looking for any sort of land or object he could beach himself on. He was not going to suffocate again. What the fuck was that about? He never got an answer.

_I really want an answer on that and yet I feel like I’m not gonna ever get one. Fuckity fucken fuck…_

The- whatever he was swimming in was far too thin to be water. What even was thinner than water? He wasn’t going to taste but it felt like it should be water but the way his body dragged through it felt wrong and it didn’t feel like any other liquid he knew. It’s all just dark and his body’s natural buoyancy seemed meaningless forcing him to kick harder than normal to stay up.

Something slithers near Yuri’s leg and instinct almost makes him freeze. Right, can’t get rid of the possibility something will just eat him. Straight out reach with jaws of death to crush him, or is it like a death plus scenario in this case, and who knows maybe all of the teeth are made of littler teeth made of spiders that are made out knives and they’re all secretly corrupt politicians. That made as much sense as anything that would happen today.

It would go right along with half the shit he’s seen and experienced since coming here and his favorite is still wandering off the path and feeling all his bones ripped out of his body one by one and agonizingly regrow. And he is pretty damn sure that what he felt was if he had a cart full of pain killer in him because as agonizing as the experience was it should have felt worst. Which scared Yuri not because of the pain but because he knew that somehow without a doubt this was supposed to be way worse.

He pushed onward in the water ignoring the fear that something might crawl on his legs and eat him. It’s nothing! Just focus on getting somewhere safer than wherever the fuck this is. Flynn’s probably fine but first, he needs to figure out where he is. Yuri keeps looking out for anything but it’s so dark that he can’t even make out his hands even knowing they’re right in front of him. He keeps pushing and pushing a wave slamming out of nowhere into his side dragging him under.

Gasp- he pushed back to the surface only to be forced back under. He felt himself rocked back and forth as he struggled to swim upward. Shit.

Breath- another crash and this time he could feel something hit into his sides that felt distinctly fleshy. Fuck. He kicked wildly and felt his foot kick off whatever was down there giving him some momentum that was short lived as it wrapped around his ankle.

No! Fuck no!

More relief hits him than it should when he feels himself shot out of the ‘water’ like a ragdoll onto a hard surface. Sand, his mind supplies as he quickly scrambles away from what he hopes is the edge. Somebody turn on a goddamn light! He can’t see and there’s no sounds- or smells- and it’s stupidly cold. He shivers from the frozen air and takes a cautious step forward.

No point rushing forward when he can’t see. “Dammit Flynn, where are you?”

Something laughs and Yuri hears something stir and he swears he sees gears turning behind him in the dark but that’s crazy because it’s just so black and endless. It’s all behind him though so just keep walking forward. He got separated from Flynn last time and they’d been perfectly fine so this shouldn’t be any different. Just now… it’s creepier.

“Well, I’d always knew I’d be seeing you down here,” A voice in his left ear speaks and Yuri punches the air only it’s empty. That was- shit who was that? He took a defensive stance and was frustrated at a lack of sword. Really the most annoying thing about being down here was knowing he didn’t have a weapon on him at all.

Of all the times to skip on a sword he just had to do it for Estelle’s funeral. See this is what complying to society gets ya.

“Dumb question, but who’s this?”

The ground shakes. “You little shit! You ruin my ambitions and you don’t even remember me!”

“I mean, I ruin the ambitions of a lot of people.” Like, a lot. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

 The shaking gets stronger and sand erupts from the ground spraying at his face, “You are in the lair of Barbos! Leader of the Blood Alliance and the man who should have been the new leader of the Union! Then the world!”

Ohhhhhhhh. Barbos. Shit, there’s a name he hasn’t thought about in fucking forever.

Really he should have figured Barbos was somewhere in here but honestly, Yuri doesn’t really think about him. He’s very much at the back of Yuri’s mind as far as all the annoying evil assholes he fought at some point in his life. It just never seemed that important of a thing to focus on.

It’s Barbos. Yeah, he told Yuri he’d end up in hell and that he was like the Don and shit like that but it’s fucking Babos. Nobody- literally nobody- gave a shit when this guy died and the Blood Alliance when they disbanded just sort of rebranded and moved on. Think some of them actually went into the pharmaceutical industry. Yuri has never had the Blood Alliance or anyone associated with that whole thing try to do anything to him and… just overall Barbos is the last person he’d think to fight in hell.

_I met him what four times? Why should I give a shit?_

“Right Barbos!” Yuri takes a few cautious steps forward. “Long time no see.”

“Indeed. And I can’t wait to tear you limb from limb!”

Oh, that was definitely the sound of the ground splitting apart. Yuri was once more thankful as fuck for his sharp sixth sense that told him to duck as something heavy swung over his head. Fuck!

Shit- if only he could see. If he got out of here hopefully Barbos wouldn’t be able to follow him because a little hunch told Yuri Barbos would take time and effort to kill him continuously given the opportunity since they really didn’t part on good terms. Can he die continuously?

Not something he wants to find out. Seriously dude, why have a huge grudge against me? Doesn’t he have anyone else to hate with a burning passion? Someone who actually deserves it?

A step forward as he dug his heel in the sand and dashed forward taking a small leap of fate when he felt where the ground had cracked. He ducked when his senses said now Barbos was swinging from behind and rolled away. A step back and his foot landed in ‘water’ almost forcing a stumble.

He felt in another direction and took a cautious step. “I wonder Yuri Lowell, what have you been up to? I know Whitehorse is down here and that rat Ragou came in here not long after I did.”

Now from below- a jump out of the way and a nick to his calf.

“Shit, when you get so cowardly? Attacking from the shadows doesn’t seem your style.” Where are you?

A chuckle from above- sand splattering everywhere in front of the spot he’d just been standing in. “I wonder, how did you kick the bucket? Bet it was doing something stupid like fighting where ya didn’t belong.”

Gears were turning behind him loud and clumsily, “You’d think that but actually, it was a case of bad clams.”

A pause, “Oh really?”

“Yeah, they had axes and everything.”

There’s a resounding laugh that he can’t locate. “You’re the same annoying shit I remember.”

There! A noise in the dark to his left that he caught as he punched towards where he thought Barbos was.

Nothing

Huh? Damn it. Why can't he see down here? Fighting blind is never an option anyone wants to take up. If this place is like the rest there should be an opening somewhere in here. He just needs to find it.

_How the hell ya gonna find anything when you can't see your own hand?_

He's going onward slowly now trying to spot any sign of a door. "Can't help it if I'm perfect." More water to the right of him. “I mean, you’ve seen my hair. It’s positively glorious.” Make noise big guy! Point out where you are so he can keep his skin intact.

Metal scraped on metal- from the left- no right- also behind- and front. The ground shook- Yuri leapt to the air feeling his body just barely miss the long thick blades that had just cracked the sand. Right. This is hell.

Barbos probably doesn’t look the same if the number if weird deformed things are any indication. This'll be fun.  A blade manages to cut on his calf as he runs further into the dark. If he could just see anything- wait… red?

Oh, please don’t tell him he’s gonna have to go bleeding all over the place! Because the blood on his leg is not enough on its own the wound itself is pretty shallow. There’s enough blood on his hand that he can make out a fair amount of his palm. It’s far too vivid. A stain of glowing red like paint against a black canvas.

That thing is coming from the upper right. He slides his hand across the blade as he jumped away smiling when he sees the red streaked in the air as the blade moves. He can work with that. “Geez, you have to bleed to turn on a light here? What you have against lights?”

“You haven’t been dead long have ya?”

“You got me. I’m a bit of a fresh corpse.” The ground runs out ahead. “Look, I know you hate me and all but really do you have to make an effort to kill me. I know there’s a door around here just point it out to me. I’ll leave, you don’t have to think about me like how I don’t think about you, you can try to go fight the Don’s ghost, and I can get back to doing what I was doing.”

There’s a pause.

“What do you mean ya don’t think about me?” Barbos roars and Yuri sees the blade he painted pause.

“I mean… you’re not important in my life in any way shape or form. You mostly were evil and had a thing I needed.”

… “But… didn’t my death haunt you or anything?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Not even the gruesome sight of my body as twisted in those gears brought shivers down yer spine?”

Ah, that! “Nah, I looked away. I’m not a fan of mutilation. That’s more of a Zagi thing… Do you know if that guy is actually dead? Because I am not looking forward to bumping into him at all if ever.”

“Uh… I haven’t checked. I didn’t really know Zagi. He was just a fire from Leviathan’s Claw that helped out a lot.” The blade he can see has completely pulled back, “You really don’t think about me?”

Yuri felt for more ground and scuffled to the left. “No. I don’t think anybody does.”

He ducked from another swing. “What do ya mean?! How could nobody be talkin about my glorious coup!”

“I mean a lot happened in the span of the twenty-four-hours after you died. Plus, you weren’t that popular. Nobody talks about you ever.” Shit that nicked his arm!

“No one?” The bravado cracks a little. “Really?”

Yuri clicks his tongue. “Sorry, man.”

He could almost hear the way Barbos sags from wherever he is. “This is just disappointing.” Yuri waits for Barbos to do something but the guy is grumbling ominously for over three minutes before just falling silent. Wow.

“You know we can still do a big battle. You still hate me and stuff right?” If he walks out without a fight after doing so much mental strategy that’s just gonna be embarrassing.

“It’s not the same. You’re supposed to have a dark imprint of me on your soul but everybody who wanders in says the same thing. Who’s this? Do I know you? Something about how nobody likes me.” Yeah, no this super sad.

“Hey… can I go now?”

… “Fine. Door’s straight ahead ya fuck. Just kick in the floor.”

Okay, time to hurry the fuck out of here before he changes his mind. That was way less climatic then he expected. Who’d think the guy had that frail of an ego. He feels under his feet where the sand breaks away to reveal a slab below. Okay give this a kick and- oh right Ragou is next… ew. Hate to be morbid but can some random person he met who just happened to die prior be his next visit. Ragou is just such slime.

Oh there better not be slime.

Whatever gotta hurry up and get back to Flynn.

* * *

 

… This is definitely some weird misshapen forest thing. Are the trees made of kid’s toys? Better than human bones. What is that screaming? It sounds like

Something slammed him into the ground which was thankfully just grass. That familiar weight and clanking, he wheezed, “Nice of you to drop in.”

Flynn rolled off of him coughing up sludge, “Oh, you know me. Always happy to do so.”

“Do I want to know about the sludge?”

“No. It’s not even important.” Flynn spat the rest out on the grass glaring at it.

They both stand looking around in curiosity. “Why do you think we’re in a forest of all places?”

“Dunno. But I need water. There was way too much smoke back there.” Flynn did sound like shit not to mention his hair had a shit ton of ash in it.

“You might want to do something about that.” He pointed as Flynn spent a minute generating a small dust cloud till his hair was only slightly tinted gray. Looking around the forest everything looks almost normal for a change.

The consensus is to keep moving much like before. The sooner they get back to reality the sooner he can repress the memory from the ferry. After a few hours- maybe, it’s hard to tell- their stomachs erupt into a series of groans.

“Okay, it has definitely been a long time because I feel like skipped dinner and breakfast,” Not like he hasn’t been hungrier, but life has gotten to a point where he doesn’t have to worry about having to miss meals. Yuri isn’t rich but Brave Vesperia definitely has him in the middle class and that’s pretty good compared to when he was a kid. When was the last time he skipped a meal? There was the time where he got stranded on an island with Karol and Patty for a week last year.

They still need water and frankly drinking his own piss is far from appealing if it comes down to it. Uck, hope it doesn’t. The sound of running water broke across their ears. A glance between them as they hurried towards the noise to see a brook with water and fish? As Yuri reached to take some water in his hand the surface crackled and heated turning red. It bubbled and turned to their frustration as they backed away before turning back to perfectly clear water.

“It’s totally fucking with us,” Yuri hissed.

Flynn dipped his hand back and was met with much the same result. “Great. Let’s keep moving.”

“Yeah.”

Walking.

And walking.

And more goddamn walking.

The door doesn’t seem anywhere obvious and at this point, they were genuinely getting tired. It was already dark with the sky seemingly painted over with apocalyptic paintings that shifted in a kaleidoscopic fashion from time to time. It’s just a forest of toys, a river of maybe blood, and them for miles.

“I hate to say it, but I think we should get some sleep.”

Flynn’s eyes twitch. “We don’t have time for that we need to get Estellise as soon as possible. We have no water or food and I don’t want to see what happens if we stay here too long.”

“We’re not going to keep going if we’re too exhausted. Right now, this place is pretty safe so let’s sleep and take off again in the morning.” Or whatever time it actually ends up being. “Estelle wouldn’t want us to be reckless.”

“But, we’re being reckless by not moving.”

He walked over to one of the trees and pulled out a long thin piece of metal. This might work. “The river had some fish. I’m going to see if I can catch one. You start a fire.”

“Yuri! We should keep moving!”

“What was that? Can’t hear you over the sound of my own disobedience. Better get started on that fire.”

As he walked off, he heard Flynn muttering something along the lines of, “If these dolls start strangling us in our sleep, I swear…!”

It took a bit, but three fish were caught and hauled over to the campsite. “Burning the toys, huh?”

“Not much else to use. I just hope they don’t turn out to be made of bone or something.”

“It sucks that we don’t have water. Maybe if we got it out of the river of blood first…”

“We’re not drinking from the bubbling river of blood,” Flynn said tossing a wooden horse into the fire.

“I never said we were. I don’t even think it is blood at this point and even if we did we don’t know where it’s been.” Yuri said and Flynn grimaced as the ‘fish’ were cut into pieces to remove the excess teeth and eyeballs. “I’m just pointing out the obvious fact there is no water.”

The ‘fish’ all screamed. “I’m not eating that.”

“If you have any other ideas be my guest.”

“My existence is suffering my name is lost! We are eternal.” One of the fish said as he cut out the eyes.

“I choose starvation.”

Yuri looked at the other two fish. The one with fur twitched, “Man does not exist outside of philosophy.”

“I’m sure they’ll shut up once they’re cooked.”

The final fish stood on its fins and looked between them, “Beware of the silver spoon!” Before falling down and seeming to die.

“You think that this is what happens to animals when they die?” Yuri raised a brow as he awkwardly stuck the food near the fire. There wasn’t a lot of meat once you cut off the weird deformities.

“I don’t want to think about it.” Flynn grimaced pulling away from the fire.

Silence as they sit there staring at the fire and the meat roasting away. “It’s cold,” Yuri mutters as he holds his hand up to the flame.

A nod. More silence as Yuri pulls back the fish and hands one over to Flynn. They both take a hesitant bite and Yuri is grateful that fish tastes like fish. Flynn still hates it, but at least he’s eating.

“Do you think Estellise will be all… you know?”

“I hope not.”

Flynn slumps into a ball, “It’s so hard to tell time here. What if she’s been here so long she can’t remember us or worse. What if she doesn’t want to go back?”

“Don’t think about it too much. This is Estelle we’re talking about. She’s strong and knowing her she’s pissed she didn’t get to say yes. Besides, if she is,” he gave Flynn a light slap on the back, “You go kiss her on the lips and wake the princess right up.”

Flynn chuckled slightly. “Yeah. I am the shining knight here to rescue her.”

“What does that make me in this metaphor?”

Flynn tilted his head a little, “The horse maybe? Or a squire. I don’t know the metaphor doesn’t really work with two people.”

His nose wrinkled a smidge, “Why not I just also be a knight?”

“Because you make a horrible knight and this metaphor doesn’t account for vigilantisms.”

He flips his hair a little, “Fuck you. I’m the dragon!”

“The dragon is evil in this metaphor,” Flynn straightens.

“Well that’s just racist,” Yuri turned on his side toss the fish bones away making himself comfortable on the grass.

“It’s not- that’s not- you’re- fine you’re the dragon! Night, Yuri.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my favorite to do with Flynn and Yuri is just write scenes where they have to cook fish. I always find some way to make it funny or just weird. I work this kind of scenario into basically anything


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I know it's short but I have been repeatedly going through this bit as I slowly make my way through and I just need to force myself forward so I can get back to writing things because I want to torture Yuri and Flynn in horrific manners

 

Flynn struggled to sleep. The fire was cold or more accurately it didn’t feel like anything in the first place. There wasn’t any warmth except whatever body heat they could generate which left him shivering now and then. He didn’t like the way the dolls dangling from the trees seemed to look at him and sometimes he swears they were moving.

Yuri is currently snoring into his cape and using his body as a heater. Is this the worst place they have had to sleep? Flynn stares out at that beady-eyed china doll that he knows turned away from them a few hours ago.

Yeah, possibly. But then he remembers a few months ago being trapped in a slaughterhouse in a room full of decaying pigs for almost a week because sometimes deranged psychopaths manage to get the drop on people on their way home from picking up groceries… That didn’t even have anything to do with being Commandant. That was just cause the guy was kidnapping blondes. “Why is my life so weird?”

SnnNNNOOoooooooRrrrrrreeeeee.

Flynn’s always been a little jealous about how Yuri can just seem to fall asleep wherever the fuck he pleases. He, on the other hand, has always had trouble getting his mind to fully shut down once he lays down. For some reason, his thoughts will wander off on weird tangents that have nothing to do with anything. So he’ll turn over and over and then wind up sleeping upside-down in the bed. At least, that was how it was when he slept on his own. When he was a kid he’d usually just end latching onto Yuri and squeezing the ever-living crap out of him.

Once Estelle moved in with him and they started sharing a bed it got easier to just hold her like a teddy-bear and think about how warm and soft she was. How smooth her skin is. Or the little cluster of moles she has on her shoulder that for some reason she gets sensitive about. He thinks it’s very cute that she has four tiny moles on her left shoulder. Flynn likes that her hair will tickle his face and he doesn’t mind that Estelle will shift a lot in her sleep. It’s very funny when she occasionally mutters something because it means she’s having a good dream and whatever it is that bird is doing with blue frosting is clearly important.

She is sun wrapped in thick cozy blankets. He liked it when she read in bed with the light on because Estelle would get so lost in the words she’d forget that he’d been staring at her thinking just good things about them.

_Us._

_Why didn’t I tell her sooner? Why did I wait?_

Because some special date near a special occasion? Because he figured it would be wrong to rush in and propose to her before it had been long enough? How long even is that supposed to be? Did he wait too long? Was two-and-half years too long? Was Estelle ready to say yes?

Oh, god, what if she wasn’t ready to yes? What if he had just assumed on principle, she’d say but really Estelle wasn’t ready. What if when he asked Estelle admitted while she did love him before marrying, she wanted to actually experience relationships with other people because she’s never really dated outside of him and she wants to have that before saying yes.

That seems like and Estelle thing to think.

What if they broke up temporarily while she was soul searching and she never came back? What if she really did hit off with somebody else and then accidentally broke his heart? Then he might binge on ice-cream for a few weeks and frankly, Flynn didn’t exercise as much as he used to.

_I’d get so fat. I don’t want to be fat and alone._ _That's what sad people do._

See, now he’s just gone from done pining sweetly to catastrophizing. This is why he hates trying to fall asleep.

Just shut your thoughts. Close your eyes. And focus on sleeping.

But now he’s thinking about that little subject he’s tried to just avoid at night but can’t. No matter how much he tries to circle his thoughts around it the image keeps creeping back. Pulling the ring out of his pocket with shaky hands because he’d been nervous. Paranoid he’d say something stupid like mixing his words to a point of stupidity or just end not being able to talk at all.

He’d barely gotten the words out when she threw herself into a hug and he’d felt so happy. So lucky. So much of all those good feelings.

And then the arrow struck.

Flynn can’t really describe what happened next because they’ve burned into him so severely. So painfully that he keeps seeing details that he’s sometimes certain he’s making up. But the impact he can remember because he felt her body jolt from the pain. Her eyes going wide as he spotted the fletching before his trailed to the assassin whose own blunder had him swearing.

Flynn’s trying not to react because now he’s thinking about how he left her to chase the archer down because he couldn’t think of anything to do other then that and call for help. How… he didn’t even see her die because he just didn’t know what to do! All he knew was removing the arrow would make things worse and that Estelle was in pain.

This man shot her! This man shot her and admitted it was for him! That she didn’t even get medical help in time… If they still had blastia… if he’d had his then maybe that could have saved her. Maybe.

He’s not about to cry. More like he just feels like if he moves he’s going to hurt himself or say something awful. He’s not even sure how just that he thinks he will. He stopped crying after the second night. It didn’t hurt less. Tears just felt redundant. Reactions felt tedious. And his heart just felt like it had a stone slowly weighing down and pushing out his back. So he just squeezed Yuri a little and was grateful he didn’t seem to notice but even that felt like too much of an action. He’s going to get her back and when he does he can just attempt to reverse this whole grieving process.

What about when she really dies? What about that inevitability? Flynn doesn’t like admitting that sometimes he looks at the older knights and thinks about how getting old is gross. The idea that one day he’s just gonna wake up unable to fight with a sword because he’s just too old seems impossible but he knows it’s coming.

And when he gets Estelle back, he’s going to have to leave her again when the inevitable happens. Flynn doesn’t want to die but it is going to happen. It’s going to happen and the likelihood he can do this again seems nonexistence. He’s going to actually put himself through the grieving process or worse given everything he’ll die first and she’s going to be the one left dying.

It’s so complicated and terrifying and Flynn just really needs to shut his eyes. Needs to focus on the fact that they are rescuing Estelle and he’s going to get to live his life with her. He’s going to live.

If he’d gotten shot instead would Estelle be down here with Yuri? Or… or would she just be forced to live without him? The longer he thinks on it the worse it all starts to look if he had died. An awful little voice that lacks common curtesy or even sense in the back of his head noting that it was probably a good thing that Estelle died. Which… yeah, the rescue couldn’t happen but fucking hell is it inappropriate.

This all just keeps hurting in new and worsening ways. Flynn just wants to shut this out for now. Just for a moment. Just let him sleep world!

                                                        Sleep

                                                                                                           Sleep    

_Dream_

* * *

 

Someone- Yuri, definitely Yuri and not a horrifying doll monster, - shook his shoulder. He cracked his eye open kinda hoping that the being in hell thing was a bizarre dream. It never is. Uck.

He sat up groaning. His throat was so damn dry and the ground was far too hard on his back. He's too young to have a sore back after sleeping on the ground. Why couldn’t there just be a little bit of water for him? He feels like his throat got scrapped against a gravel road. Yuri held out some sort of fruit that appeared to be a cluster of different kinds of toes. Everything about this makes him uncomfortable.

“It’s okay to eat. And they’re juicy.”

So uncomfortable.

“Why the hell would you even try this?” Oh god, he can wiggle the toes. That is so gross. So gross.

Flynn got a shrug, “It smelled enough like fruit and you said you needed water. Just only bite it once and then suck out the flesh. It’s full of seeds.” Don’t say flesh. He didn’t care if it was the accurate term for that part of a fruit don’t call it flesh when it looks like toes.

If it wasn’t for the fear of dehydration, he would very much toss this at that tree. Did it move from last night? That tree totally moved from last night. Why does it taste like peach mixed with watermelon but textured inside like a lychee? That’s so weird. Everything has just been too weird. When he gets back with Estelle Flynn is taking a week off to remember what reality is supposed to be.

At least it's mostly juice.

“You don’t think we’ll be here forever now?” he says whipping the juice from his chin and tossing the skin away. So fucking weird.

“Why would we?”

“Well, in most stories eating anything from the underworld gets you trapped there. Especially fruit."

Yuri peeled back some of the skin and ate another. “Death didn’t say that was a thing. So I think we’re fine.”

“I guess.” Flynn hesitated just a little bit to eat another one. Must it actually feel like skin? This one is orange, grape, and… kiwi? “I just hope this is actually safe.”

“If it wasn’t, I think we’d already be dead.”

"How would we know? Do you think we'd physically be in pain or what?"

"I don’t really want to know," Yuri shivered rubbing at his neck again before idly pulling at his fingers.

"Did it really hurt that badly?" Flynn’s been idly noting how Yuri’s been feeling at his neck and

"I mean, the bone forest was worse," Yuri mutters going still. "Mostly I just keep thinking why."

There never was a real answer to that. Flynn couldn’t imagine what it was Yuri had seen or felt since coming in but he’s heard the scream and when Yuri had wandered off path he didn’t see what happened but well- Yuri’s reaction spoke volumes. He had theorized some but he’s not going to say anything unless Yuri wants to.

“When we get back you want to go camping or something? I want to hang out in a less terrifying location this time.” Flynn could do with some of that.

“I was thinking we could head over to Nam Cobanda Isle. Throw some chips, catch some theatre, just relax like normal people.”

“I’d like that. We never get to do that.” Flynn can’t remember the last time he had a vacation with absolutely no drama in it whatsoever. There was that tropical vacation they tried to take but he counts the severe sunburn he got when he decided to go topless for a change. Letting Yuri convince him that would be a good idea even though Flynn ignites like a marshmallow when out in the sun too long was the worst idea.

They got moving again soon enough. Yuri pointing out they’re likely to bump into Ragou next followed by Cumore and Flynn grimaces. They were annoying enough alive and they genuinely hate both of them. This is not going to be fun.

“They are so going to try to kill us,” Flynn muttered.

“If it’s any consolation I think it’s mostly me they’ll be after,” Yuri said kicking away a cabbage head, but the leaves were made of human faces.

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure Cumore at the very least also wants me dead,” They still can’t find that door no matter where they look, “I think he hired Zagi to go after me through Leviathan’s Claw and then Zagi just didn’t. I found a receipt at least.”

Yuri raised a brow, “Cumore kept receipts?”

“Yeah. There was a filing cabinet and everything.” Given that Cumore was under suspicion for conspiracy, treason, and various other sorts of crimes it was natural that an investigation would be opened so they could further look into things. That lead to the discovery of a money-laundering scheme, a small drug ring, and a disturbingly large collection of colorful codpieces.

“You also ruined Ragou’s plans too,” That did indeed happen.

“Ugh, I am not looking forward to this.”

Yuri snorted, “Oh yeah, _you’re_ not looking forward to this.”

It took that voice screaming in his head to realize the door was a hole this time. Pretty sure that’s the voice of death or something luring him in, but it acts as a good guide every once in a while.

It resembled a rabbit burrow only large enough for someone to fall in… Flynn’s not even going to humor that obvious of a setup.

Yuri on the other hand, “Curiouser and curiouser.”

“Don’t bother. We’re already in wonderland.”

“I thought we were in the Inferno. You know Dante and all that.”

Does he even bring up the fact that technically you could consider that the kid’s version of Dante but whatever it’s Yuri. The amount of fucks Yuri gives on that is probably somewhere in the negatives.

Down the literal rabbit hole he goes.  

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me at  
> @felinisfeloney on tumblr where I talk tales trash and post art


End file.
